Bingham & Taylor Celebrate Expansion & Modernization
October 10, 2023 Updates
CULPEPER, Virginia – Bingham & Taylor celebrated their two-year expansion and upgrades at their Culpeper foundry with a ribbon cutting event on October 6th at 2:00pm. The Honorable Glenn Youngkin, Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia, along with local and regional elected officials were in attendance to show their support for the company’s newly unveiled electric melt system. This new system has proven not only to improve safety: reducing injuries by over 90% , environmental footprint: reducing CO emissions by 98% and increase recycled content abilities for their products to contain greater than 99% recycled content, but has also significantly expanded production capacity, which resulted in adding 32 hourly and 13 salaried/professional jobs into the Culpeper community. Bingham & Taylor has invested $23 Million dollars over the last 5 years into this expansion.
Bingham & Taylor serves as North America’s predominant supplier of meter and valve access and security systems for underground utilities. Their main markets are water and gas utilities. Their primary customers are the individual utilities, as well as distributors that sell Bingham & Taylor’s products throughout North America and the Caribbean. This 100% woman-owned business was originally founded in 1849, in Buffalo, NY and relocated to Culpeper, VA in the 1940s, where they currently operate their cast-iron foundry. You will see the silhouette of a buffalo included in their company logo to pay homage to their roots and serve as a reminder to all on where their journey began. They now have three manufacturing plants – the primary plant in Culpeper, an injection-molding plastics plant and a blow-molding plastics plant in Fredericksburg, Virginia. They also have a distribution facility located in Corona, CA to assist in serving west coast based customers.
“Over the years we have consistently created innovative products and accessories to address a variety of performance, durability and security issues in the industry, which has allowed us to have the edge on many of our competitors,” stated owner, Laura Grondin, “I have a strong commitment to the community and our employees to ensure Bingham & Taylor is sustainable and viable for years to come. This expansion and modernization is just one of many opportunities for us to invest in the communities we work in and serve.”
The future is bright for Bingham & Taylor; they are an integral part of the infrastructure that brings water to people’s homes. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) has $55 billion dollars earmarked for the replacement of water lines to improve the quality of drinking water across the United States including the replacement of lead service lines. IIJA funded projects requires products, such as Bingham and Taylor’s to be poured in the United States. The replacement of drinking water and water lines across the US is estimated to take up to 20 years to complete at a cost of $625 billion dollars. Bingham and Taylor’s investment in the new electric melt furnaces has improved their companies’ ability to support these projects.
Bingham and Taylor
Services: Product providers for underground utility access. Additional stats and background information below. Website: https://bandt-us.com/
About the Culpeper Department of Tourism & Economic Development
The Culpeper Department of Tourism and Economic Development is responsible for promoting the Culpeper community as an attractive travel destination, enhancing its public image as a dynamic place to live, work and vacation. Their office also strives to enhance the quality of life and raise the standard of living for all Culpeper residents, through aggressive business recruitment, expansion assistance, and trade development, thereby expanding the tax base and creating higher income employment opportunities.
For more information on the Town of Culpeper and Visit Culpeper, VA, visit:
https://www.culpeperva.gov/ | https://visitculpeperva.com/
Quick Stats
- Capex: $23M over the past 5 years.
- Safety: Reduced injuries by 90% over past 5 years
- Environmental: CO emissions reduced by 98%
- Jobs: Added 32 hourly and 13 salaried / professional jobs
- June 2020 to June 2023 increase in salaried payroll of 94% and hourly payroll of 14.8%.
- Recycled Content: Products contain greater than 99% recycled content. B&T recycles 12M pounds of brake rotors annually. That is equivalent to all 4 rotors from 500,000 automobiles.
- Bingham and Taylor did not take state incentives for this project.
Short Story of How B&T Upgraded
In 2020 Bingham and Taylor made the decision to install electric melt furnaces, replacing the previous coke melt furnace and copula system, for several reasons:
- Significantly reduce BT’s environmental footprint and become more sustainable by switching from the use of a by-product of coal for fuel to electricity
- Significantly expand production capability: electric melt can operate 24/7 compared to prior cupola that can only operate a maximum of 10 hours per day
- Expand employment opportunities with more highly skilled employees and overall number of employees
This decision required new substations, transformers, and wiring. The Town of Culpeper’s Light and Power utility department worked with Bingham and Taylor on design and specifications during 2020, and in February of 2021 a memorandum of understanding was executed between the Town and B&T. By March 2021 scope of design was presented with costs and a letter to proceed was executed. Site work began in July 2021 and proceeded through March 22, 2022.
During the construction phase, the Town of Culpeper contracted consultants to review our utility rate class structure, as the new electric melt furnace systems were going to significantly increase B&T’s power demand. In September 2021, staff took a resolution to Council to set a new electric rate for industrial power service, Council unanimously passed the resolution, and the new rate class was effective October 1, 2021. This action was critical to the project, as the previous utility class and rates were note cost effective for B&T to upgrade their system.
Quick Facts about Bingham and Taylor
B&T has three Virginia manufacturing facilities located in Culpeper (cast iron foundry), Fredericksburg (injection molded plastics), and Spotsylvania (blow molded plastics).
- 1946 – Bingham and Taylor purchases foundry property in Culpeper, Virginia
- 2000 – To expand B&T production, two large buildings are built and the new sand system is installed. The building to house electric melt is built but the furnaces will not be installed until 2022-2023
- 2005: B&T becomes 51% female owned (and becomes 100% owned by Laura Grondin in 2021)
- 2016: B&T opens a 20,000 sq. ft. facility with injection molding machines in Fredericksburg, VA to make plastic meter pits and plastic lids
- 2020: B&T opens a 65,000 sq. ft. facility in Spotsylvania, VA, to house its expanding blow molding and assembly operation previously operated in a much smaller space on the Culpeper, VA property
- Majority of B&T’s workforce is Latino (60%)
